What is Toyota Safety Sense? What Does it Do?Can I still lift my truck? What does it compromise? How do I avoid it? Why do we have it?Is it a good thing?

These are all questions that we get at the shop when it comes to the new 2018 and up Tundra and Tacoma Models that are standard with Safety Sense Technology. In a nut shell this is what Toyota says about the product that comes standard on your truck now.

Safety Sense Features(Copied from the Toyota Web site)

Toyota Safety Sense™ (TSS) is a bundle of active safety features on many new Toyota vehicles at no additional cost. These innovative features were designed to help protect you and your passengers from harm.

Pre-Collision SystemThis advanced safety system is designed to alert you, and may apply the brakes, if it detects a potential frontal collision with another vehicle.

Pre-Collision System with Pedestrian DetectionThis integrated camera and radar system is designed to reduce the likelihood of colliding with a preceding car or pedestrian.

Lane Departure AlertA camera on your windshield may help you avoid the consequences of unintended lane departure by alerting you when it senses that you’ve veered from your lane.

Automatic High BeamsA camera on your windshield aids nighttime driving by using a camera to detect headlights and taillights of preceding vehicles, and toggling accordingly between high and low beams.

Dynamic Radar Cruise ControlThis high-tech cruise control uses a radar behind the Toyota badge plus a camera on the windshield designed to adjust your speed, helping you maintain a safe distance from the car in front of you.

Road Sign AssistUsing a forward-facing intelligent camera, Road Sign Assist (RSA) is designed to detect speed limit signs, stop signs and yield signs, and displays them on the MID.

Lane Tracing AssistWhen Dynamic Radar Cruise Control (DRCC) is enabled and lane markers are detectable, Lane Tracing Assist (LTA) uses the line on the road and preceding vehicles to help keep the vehicle centered and in its lane.

Not a bad deal right? well that depends. At the shop we are all about active safety features that have no down side and only an upside. I would conclude that all of these features are really nice. I have driven in a bunch of these trucks now and all of this is cool and it works great... Until you mess with the ride height of your truck.

When lifting these trucks the safety sense sensor is moved up and its calibration of what it knows from distance and angle to the road is changed. Safety Sense then throws error codes that it is not functioning properly. Out side of error codes which is the most common issue, (whole system does not work) My Experience on mild lifts, most of these safety features are left in tact. The biggest effected features is the Lane Departure Alert. It becomes less effective and the pre collision system kicks in later than normal. These findings are also confirmed with reports and posts on the internet of the same issues.

Its our stance at Chitown4x4 that we don't want to compromise these systems on a truck if its avoidable, so what are we to do when a customer wants to lift that new 2019 Tundra and is still concerned for safety sense? Well We have a work around, and it for sure was not developed by us, it was developed by the good guys over at Toyota Racing Development.

See, TRD PRO Trucks come lifted from the factory, 1-2" in the front and they have an elegant solution that fixes all your issues with Safety Sense. Its as simple as installing a TRD style grille that lowers the Safety Sense Sensor 3" to accommodate the lift kit that is installed and return it to factory specs. Brilliant right! Here is the 2 grilles next to each other so you can see the difference.

TACOMA PRO VS TACOMA REGULAR GRILL

TUNDRA PRO VS TUNDRA REGULAR GRILL

In both cases, the safety sensor location was dropped from the middle of the Grill to a lower point in the grill to accommodate a Mild 2-3" lift application and still retain the functionality of safety sense. This was confirmed with engineers from Toyota out at FJ Summit 2018. When lifting one of these trucks the trd grill is the only way to retain full functionality of safety sense and should accompany any lift kit up to 3" Anything beyond 3" could throw error messages on your Safety Sense Display.

Please Note that the Large Retail Companies out there Like Four Wheel Parts have decided that a written insurance policy around installing lift kits on Toyota Safety Sense Trucks is a better solutions than making sure its still functioning. We don't believe that this is the solution as it does not keep your Safety Sense Program in tact.

We Stand Behind What Toyota has told us is the proper way to lift their trucks and keep Safety Sense in tact to keep customers safe.

TACOMASo lets move to the practical side of this: You want to lift your truck, here are the part#'s that you will need to get this right and make sure that Safety Sense is Still working the way it should be.

Its a bit confusing from reading the internet, but its quite simple really. The 2018+ Grille and the 2016-2018 Grill can both be used, and here is how.

The 2016-2018 Pro Grille is Part # PT228-35180 and includes an insert that can be removed to bolt in your safety sense sensor. Along with that Grille you will also need the Safety Sensor Glass Garnish that is part # 53141-35060.

If you purchase the 2018 Pro Grill, Part # PT228-35180 the knock out will already be open and you will also need to purchase Part # 53141-35060 to fill the gap just like the 2016 version.

Both grills work, just a matter of what you can find and if your ok taking a few more steps with the 2016-2018 model Grill

TUNDRABecause the Tundra Pro Models don't have Safety Sense till 2019, the quick fix for all you tundra guys is to simply move the sensor down. This is possible with a 2014+ Pro Grill and relocating the sensor to a lower position 2-3" lower so you don't get error warnings. (images pulled from AERES user on Tundra Forums)

If you have questions, please let us know, we will be happy to help you out. Please also note that although these solutions have been tested and shown to work, there are some limited reports that error messages with TSS still do get reported, but they are few and far between.